Outside My Door....Right Now

We have a little visitor outside right now. It just happens to be a Bull snake. I suppose this is one of the "joys" of living in the country. Very often snakes find the asphalt in front of the garage door a nice place to sun themselves.

Here's Gus defending us from the snake. I snuck out to take these pictures but the situation really turns out better for the other animal if I go back into the house. The minute Gus sees his master (me), he has to defend me and it is certain death for the other animal, be it a snake, cat, skunk or whatever he has cornered.

This one is really fairly small compared to the others that sunbathe in my driveway.

This allowed me to have some good discussion with Hannah about snakes. We have been exploring worms and insects but I'm trying to gently help her understand what we can pickup and what we can't. I work really hard not to freak her out about touching harmless things. It was all I could do to remain calm the other day when she brought me a huge carpenter ant.

Poor Hannah is stuck in the house until either Gus gets it or it goes. She's not too thrilled!

Happy Fathers Day!

Please excuse the finger in the nose. It is the ONLY picture where she is looking at the camera. This project is becoming increasingly more difficult to complete. I have three year old that didn't want to cooperate and a 15 month old that wouldn't stand still and hold the letter up. Better luck next year!

Swathing

The girls got to go swathing with me yesterday. Before I had Hannah, I used to run a swather all summer cutting alfalfa hay. After I had her, my job changed to Mom and wheel line changer. When she was an infant I swathed for two days but hadn't done any since.


For the last few years we have rented some ground to grow triticale to make grain hay for the cows. Last year we had another farmer put up the hay for us but this year we have decided to do it ourselves. We rented some equipment and yesterday was the day we cut it.



Here they are, ready to go. Hannah was so excited. She couldn't stop talking about the swathers in the driveway. She would frequently drag me out there to look at them.








Our view for several hours yesterday while traveling about 3 m.p.h. It was slow going but if I went much faster I would have spent way too much time unplugging the swather.




The girls loving the ride.

After a few hours Hannah busied herself trying to color on every page of a notebook that I brought. Helena decided to take a nap on the arm that I steer with. This forced me to steer with blood deprived fingers. Boy were they tired when I got done. It's amazing what a Mom will do to keep a kiddo asleep when they know they need a nap.

And then Hannah decided to take a nap behind the same arm. At this point I'm hoping and praying nothing goes wrong with the swather that will cause me to have to get out.

Four hours later we finished with no problems. Up next, a little raking and lots of baling.

Smiling

My goal for the day was to get some picture of the girls. They are several months overdue for their one year and three year pictures. Between being sick, Helena learning to walk and then bruising her face upon falling, and the weather, I haven't been able to get them out for pictures. They need a little more editing work but they made me smile so I thought I would share them before I was really done with them, because who knows when that will be.

I didn't realize until we got to the park that this hat is too small. Oh, well!

Oh Contemplative One. Unfortunately my ability to get Hannah to cooperate for a planned photo shoot, and then give me a genuine smile lacks something to be desired.

"I've had it Mom. I just want to go play." Note to self: Next time don't go to a park with play ground equipment to take their pictures.

Please Send Summer

Dear God,

We are thankful for the moisture that you have sent this spring so that our crops can have moisture, even though there isn't much water for irrigation. We are no longer surprised that it is snowing at the end of May. But we are weary of the cold, windy, and cloudy days. Could you please send a little warmth and sunshine our way? We love it when we get to play in blanket forts in the house but we would rather be playing outside. We were raised in the country and we are outside girls. Our hay isn't growing very fast and the garden is having a hard time too. We know you know what is best and are in charge of the weather, but please consider our plea when you are making your plans. We are smiling anyway but a little sunshine would definitely put a bigger smile on our faces.

Love,
Mommy, Hannah & Helena

Bowling

Hannah loves to play games. Not necessarily board games but sport type games. I finally got her a t-ball set because I would catch her in the house trying to bat a foam football with a stick. She wants to play jump rope and catch, and the list goes on. I ran across a free bowling program for kids. I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to see if she might enjoy it. If I was willing to make the drive she could bowl two games free every single day until sometime in September.

After lunch today we decided to give it a try. We set her up with bumpers and a ramp. Here we are watching her first shot.



The lightest ball is 6 pounds. I was glad to see that she's strong enough to pack it back and forth between the ball return and the lane.



And we watched the second shot.

She LOVED it! We were thankful to be on the other side of the bowling alley from the league players because she was squealing so loudly with delight. She was just happy to knock the pins down.

The final score of the first game. Not too bad for a three year old with bumpers and a ramp. I thought it would be easier to aim the ramp than it was. She puts a little spin on the ball when she pushes it down and you never know what's going to happen.

Then we just turned her loose for the second game. Sometimes we aimed the ramp for her but mostly she just bowled.

Helena was relatively happy with the whole experience. She tended to be bit frustrated that the balls were too heavy for her. She really wanted to play when she saw how excited Hannah was to knock the pins down.

Posing at the ramp with her ball.

The final score for her second game. She even got a strike in the first frame of this game.

And then it was all done. We will definitely be going again. She said she would even let me bowl with her next time. Can I have the bumpers too?

Helena was so happy to be back in her car seat so she could take a much needed nap.

Life With Hannah

To be honest with you life with Hannah, both girls really, is so regularly entertaining that I don't stop to write it all down. I know that in a perfect world it would all be recorded but I can't seem to get it all done.

One thing that she's been doing lately is sleeping with her Daddy's old long rife scope. She thinks it's a great toy. I know while she's trying to get to sleep she's getting up and digging though her toy basket to find something to pass the time with. I've been trying to put the word out though to the little boys in the neighborhood that she's sleeping with a gun scope and they had better watch out!

For awhile she was referring to speed bumps as "feed bunks." This provided some good laughs in the pickup. We are working on the correct name and I think she's gotten as far as "speed bunks." We're getting there. She doesn't get to see them all that often anyway. She does however know exactly what a cattle guard sounds like when you cross it.

Last Friday we decided at the last minute to go fishing. Were about two miles from the house when Hannah kept asking, "Are we going to find water out here?" I assured her that we would but we had a bit of a drive ahead of us. After a couple of miles of driving through rocks and sagebrush I heard a big sigh from the backseat and she said, "I don't think we are EVER going to find water out here." It was a pretty long drive but we eventually found our fishing spot.

Turtle Bay

I was feeling like I needed to get out of dodge so we headed to Redding, CA and Turtle Bay. We took Hannah when she was the same age Helena is now. Apparently I like this strawberry shirt because Hannah was also wearing it when she went to Turtle Bay. We'll just call it the "Turtle Bay Uniform." The first stop was the playground in Paul Bunyan's Forest Camp. We were there right as they opened and we had the playground to ourselves. Since we live out in the sticks I don't mind a little solitude.

Swinging was the first order of business...

Then we saw the butterflies

and fish.

We visited most of the rest of the park but I didn't feel like taking many pictures this time.

I thought some of the locals might appreciate this picture taken at 65 mph. Here's a picture of Shasta Lake (5/3/10). Normally you can see the red-orange "beaches" of the lake. It was so low at Thanksgiving that it almost resembled a mud puddle. It hasn't been this high in years from what I understand.

Too Cute

This morning Hannah wanted to hold Helena's hand and help her walk. I guess I forgot to make a post about her walking. She's been doing pretty well for about a month or so. For your viewing pleasure I let Hannah wear almost anything when we are at home, thus the John Deere sweatshirt, polar fleece pants, and rubber boots. Ahhh, I wish they got along this well all the time.

The Cake

I thought there might be a very minute population out there that wonders how I make the fondant cakes. I'm here to tell you that it's not rocket science and you can do it too.

I used to try to make the cake from scratch. After too many failed attempts and my realization that I really do just love a boxed cake mix, I made this cake from a box. Hannah wanted strawberry so Pillsbury it is.

I like my cakes to have a fairly flat top. I found this method for accomplishing that where you ice your cake upside down.

I always struggle with what to fill my cake with. I have been using this Swiss meringue butter cream recipe with good success. It reminds me a bit of something you get in a bakery. It has lots of butter in it too so it's just good!

So here's the beginning. I "leveled" the tops of the cakes with a bread knife in hopes of making them flat. I need a little more practice with this. Here I have begun the process of icing it and have put the filling on.


Layer number two. I used two 8 inch by three inch deep pans to bake the cake. It was at this point that I realized that this was going to be a tall cake. I'm not sure why I didn't realized this sooner. Each layer took one boxed cake mix.



Here is the cake with the sides frosted. I used a butter cream recipe from my Better Homes and Gardens cookbook. In hindsight, a butter cream with Crisco in it would probably hold up better. I made this a couple of days in advance and the fondant had begun to slide down by party time.

Here's my attempt at making smooth sides. I was in a hurry and this was good enough to go under the fondant. I should have stuck it in the refrigerator for a bit or let it crust over but I didn't. Hurry, hurry, hurry. Notice it's on a turn table. It is almost necessary for this technique.

I covered a card board cake circle with the fancy schmancy foil paper in the cake decorating section, and flipped the cake right side up onto it. Fondant keeps well in the refrigerator and I made a batch about a week before I made the cake. I colored it sky blue with Wilton's food coloring gel/paste. I rolled it out and managed to get it onto the cake-a feat in and of itself.

Then I very carefully worked my way from the top down, slightly stretching the fondant over the cake to make a smooth, wrinkle free covering.

Here it is trimmed and ready to be decorated. To make the rainbow, I pressed warm rice krispies treat into a 6" pan. When it cooled I popped it out, cut it in half, frosted it with butter cream and covered it with fondant. I supported the rainbow by sticking skewers in the bottom and cutting them so they just rested on the cake circle at the bottom of the cake. This way the cake didn't have to support the weight of the rainbow.

Here it is late the night I finished it.

Here it is in all of it's glory with it's gum paste sun. I could definitely use some more practice in the gum paste department. I don't even know enough to give you any advice as far as it goes. Notice the fondant has begun to sag toward the bottom of the cake. I think Crisco butter cream would help with this, and maybe a cooler kitchen.

I can't promise to never bore you with a cake assembly post again, but I hope not to. Hopefully this answered any questions that some of you might have had. If you have any more I can try to answer them in the comments. Now go forth and make a fondant cake! Remember someone is going to eat it. It doesn't have to be perfect.